After Ishara's passing, the world began to mend—but the silence left in her wake was deep. The skies above the Crown Nexus shimmered with fragile peace, but Akuzai knew better. The shard she had handed him pulsed gently in his pocket, whispering secrets even the Codex hadn't known.
They returned to Solkaris, the land of twin suns, not to train—but to plant something.
The Chrono Bloom.
It was a flower not born of soil, but of choice. The silver crystal Ishara gave them could awaken it—but only if placed in the heart of stillness. Where no rage stirred. No power clashed. Only reflection.
Akuzai knelt in the center of the Solkarian Grove. The others stood behind him—silent. The moment felt sacred. Slowly, he pressed the crystal into the ground.
And the world changed.
Time itself bent inwards. The suns dimmed. And from the soil bloomed a radiant stem, covered in translucent petals, each reflecting a different memory: Tanishk laughing. Anuj fighting. Ishara smiling. Rivan—crying.
The Chrono Bloom had awakened.
And with it came visions.
Akuzai collapsed as his mind was drawn across the timelines—not to alternate versions of himself, but to a realm beneath time.
There, a figure waited.
Cloaked in shadow. Taller than Rivan. Voice made of thunder and ice.
"So... you've found the Bloom."
Akuzai couldn't speak.
"You think Rivan was the storm? He was only the wind. I am the architect. The one who broke the first chain."
The vision shifted. He saw a man—standing in the ashes of the first timeline. Holding a scroll. Carving the first law of reality.
The First Chronomancer.
Rivan's father.
"You've delayed me long enough," the figure said. "But now that the Matrix is broken... the path is open. The final Seed will awaken soon. And when it does, I won't need a vessel like Rivan."
Akuzai awoke gasping, the vision burned into his mind.
The Bloom pulsed once, then faded—its message delivered.
Abhishek knelt beside him. "What did you see?"
Akuzai looked at them all—Aditya, Abhishek, the horizon—and said:
"Rivan wasn't the true enemy."
They were stunned.
Akuzai stood, eyes firm. "There's someone older. Someone far worse. He shaped Rivan's fall. He wants to rewrite everything. And now that the Nexus is cracked... he's coming."
Silence fell again.
But this time, it wasn't grief.
It was preparation.
Because the war they thought was over…Was only Act One.